Infini-D is an integrated 3D modeling, rendering, and animation package. It combines awesome 3D power with a friendly and intuitive interface. Some of the things it enables you to do are:
. . .subscribe to 2D outlines in Illustrator or FreeHand using System 7’s publish & subscribe, and turn them into 3D objects in Infini-D. When you save the Illustrator or FreeHand file, the 3D object will automatically update in Infini-D!
You can. . .create textures in Adobe Photoshop or Fractal Painter, and wrap them around any 3D object! The speed of the Power Macintosh will make this process fast! Plus, Infini-D’s Surface Composition allows you to position an unlimited number of PICT maps on any 3D object!
You can. . .create photo-realistic comps of packaging concepts that will dazzle your clients. With the horsepower of the PowerPC chip in your Power Macintosh, you can produce these comps in an afternoon!
You can. . .metamorphose, or morph, one 3D object into another, creating Hollywood-style special effects — fast!
You can. . .take an EPS logo from Illustrator or FreeHand, turn it into a 3D object, add a bevel and a chrome-like environment map, render it with an alpha channel (mask) and composite it seamlessly against any background in Adobe Photoshop or Specular Collage — in about 10 minutes!
You can. . .take any text or EPS object, use Infini-D’s Animation Assistant to construct a smooth 3D camera path, and render it out as a QuickTime movie, editing it into a final piece using products such as Adobe Premiere, CoSA After Effects, VideoFusion, or Avid VideoShop.
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WHAT’S HERE
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INFINI-D™ 2.6/N DEMO — This is the working demonstration version of Infini-D. It is functionally disabled in several ways: you can not save models (although you may save images and animations); you can not size a window larger than 1/4 of a 13” monitor; you can not spool more than 30 frames of an animation; there are no Animation Assistants included.
NOTE: This version will run only on the PowerPC-based Power Macintosh. It will not run on traditional 68k Macintosh computers. This version also requires QuickTime to run.
ABOUT INFINI-D™ — This is the document you are currently reading.
INFINI-D™ POWER PRESENTATION — This is a graphic slide show highlighting some of the features and benefits of both Infini-D and the Power Macintosh. Simply double-click on this icon to play the presentation. NOTE: set your Monitor to display the highest possible number of colors in the Monitors Control Panel before playing the presentation.
SLIDE SHOW MOVIES — This folder contains QuickTime movies which are necessary for the Infini-D Presentation to function correctly. If you have a QuickTime movie player, you may view them outside of the presentation as well. This folder should be in the same folder as the Infini-D Power Presentation.
INFINI-D SAMPLE FILES — This folder contains a wide selection of pre-built models for you to experiment with in Infini-D. In most cases, you simply need to open the Scene File from within Infini-D, and the program will automatically draw the 3D image. Some of the folders also contain a brief description of the file, explaining how it was made and what it is demonstrating.
DEFAULT SURFACE LIBRARY — This is a file that Infini-D accesses upon launching to provide you with a set of surfaces to work with.
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USING INFINI-D
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While Infini-D is certainly the easiest 3D graphics program to learn, there is still a learning curve associated with it. It is simply impossible to describe all of the features and their uses in a 2 page READ ME document. To get you started, the tool box and the basic environment are described here.
THE INFINI-D WORLD — When you first launch the program, you will be presented with four windows: Top, Front, Right, and Camera. These windows are all different viewpoints of the same 3D space. You can imagine that they are all looking into a fish tank from a different perspective.
The “standard” views (front, top, right) are all fixed in terms of orientation. They can not change the angle through which they view the world. The “camera” view is the view seen through a camera object that is inside your virtual fish tank. This camera can be moved and rotated to any position within the 3D world. If you zoom out in the top view, you can actually see and manipulate the camera object.
To zoom out in the Top View — Click and hold on the Pop-up menu titled “Panels” in the title bar of the Top View window. Move down to “Navigation” and let go. The Navigation Panel allows you to change what part of the world this view is seeing. Click on the Magnifying glass with the minus sign in the Navigation panel several times. The camera object will soon come into view.
THE INFINI-D TOOLBOX — Infini-D’s tool set is quite simple. The reds tools are chiefly associated with object manipulation (movement, rotation, and scaling.) The blue tools are for object creation. The green tools are for linking and unlinking objects. The light tool adds a light source. The camera tool creates a new camera object (and associated view window.)
The red cube with the dotted line around it is the “Local area ray trace” tool. With this tool selected, drag around a region in a window that contains some objects. That region will be ray traced (complete with reflections, transparency, and shadows.)
The object creation tools include generic primitives (sphere, cube, cone, cylinder, square, and plane); the editable lathe object (looks like a donut); the editable extrude object (looks like a 3D triangle); the freeform object (looks like a wrapped gift); and the terrain tool (looks like mountains).
Objects are created by selecting the desired tool and clicking in one of the view windows. Double-clicking on those objects which are editable will bring you into the appropriate editing environment.
You can create text objects by choosing “Text” from the model menu. If you have 2D EPS artwork that you wish to turn into 3D, choose “Import” from the File Menu, and then choose “EPS…” from the sub-menu. Open your EPS file from the standard Apple Open dialog box.
HAVE FUN! — We suggest that you experiment with the sample models to get a feel for the range of capabilities which Infini-D offers. If you have further questions about the product, or are interested in purchasing the fully functional copy (complete with documentation), please call Specular at 800-433-SPEC.
